Caribbean ground provisions soup ⋆ recipe via SOULFOOD.nl

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Ground provisions is the name people in the Caribbean give to various root vegetables. That could be cassava, for example, or sweet potatoes… or taro or eddoes. In short, everything that contains a lot of starch and grows underground is a “ground provision”. Literally: “what the ground gives us”.

And sometimes even other starchy fruits, such as green plantain and breadfruit, are placed in this group (although those don't grow underground, of course!)

Ground provisions are to the West Indians what potatoes are to the Dutch; a quick, easy way to get your daily calorie allowance. These root vegetables are usually eaten as a side dish. Cooked with a sauce, alongside vegetables and meat. Sounds familiar to us, doesn't it?

In this recipe we make a delicious soup with different ground provisions. This time I used eddoes and semi-ripe plantains – but feel free to substitute for something like potatoes, sweet potatoes or cassava. Because none of these ingredients themselves add much flavor, they can easily be interchanged. It is of course the other ingredients that make this soup so delicious and Caribbean.

Eddoes – have you ever eaten them?

Eddoes are small tubers, about the size of a European potato. It is perhaps most similar to taro (root) or cassava. You can find them in most Surinamese and Chinese shops and they are also called “Chinese Tayer” by the Surinamese.

Eddoes can be found in most Surinamese and African tokos. They are also usually available at the large Chinese supermarkets.

The skin of the eddoes is soft and a little hairy. It is easy to peel, just like a regular potato. The skin is therefore certainly not as hard as that of a cassava. Eddoes taste soft and slightly nutty after cooking. It has a lot of starch in it, so it's an ideal way to get your carbohydrates.

Vegan options for the ground provisions soup

In this soup I chose salted meat as a 'protein-rich product'. This gives a nice, slightly salty taste to the whole. Do you eat vegetarian or vegan? Then you can leave out the cured beef or replace it with pieces of seitan. You may need to add a little more broth, but otherwise the soup tastes delicious!

This recipe is for 4-6 servings.

caribbean ground provisions soup caribbean ground provision soup recipe recipe

Ingredients:

400 g cured beef
2 sprigs of celery, chopped
3 stock cubes, chicken or vegetables
5 eddoes tubers
2 semi-ripe (yellow) plantains
2 corn on the cob
200 gr okra
a can (400 ml) coconut milk
2 spring onions, thinly sliced
optional: 1 madame Jeanette/Adjuma pepper
chopped parsley and lime wedges, for garnish

Preparation Caribbean ground provisions soup

Start by desalting the salted meat. For this you can cut the meat into cubes and boil for about 30 minutes in plenty of water. Then drain the water. Bring water to the boil again, this time about 1,5 liters. Then return the meat to the pan and add the chopped celery and stock cubes.

When the stock is boiling together with the meat, you can prepare the ground provisions. You can peel and halve the eddoes for this. Large tubers can be cut into 3 or 4 pieces.

Then cut the corn cobs into pieces of about 4 cm. Also cut the plantains into similar pieces. Finally, you can cut the okras diagonally into large pieces. This prevents the okras from affecting the texture of the soup too much.

When the meat has cooked again for about 30 minutes, you can add the other vegetables (ground provisions). Then pour the coconut milk into the soup and bring it to a boil again.

Do you use a hot pepper? Then it can be added now. Don't forget: adding whole gives flavour, but no heat… adding whole with a few cuts in the side gives a little heat & cutting up gives a lot of heat!

Let the soup simmer for another half hour, until the eddoes are cooked. Then sprinkle the spring onion rings and, if desired, some chopped parsley over it. Finally, serve the ground provision soup with some lime wedges. - Enjoy your dinner!